The Ultimate Guide to Exploring Napa Valley Wine Country With a Group
Experience the best of Napa Valley Wine Country with your group. From hot air balloon rides and scenic hikes to vibrant music, nightlife, and world-class wineries, Napa Valley offers a wealth of activities for every taste. Our latest trip focused on exploring the region's renowned wineries, perfect for group outings. Whether you're planning a weekend escape or an extended adventure, Napa Valley is an ideal destination for creating unforgettable memories with friends. Discover why this iconic wine region should be at the top of your group travel list.
Places to stay:
Our Airbnb - great for a group of 8 everyone had their own room and bathroom attached to their room.
Get inspired based on your tastes, here, or explore the map below!
Overview Itinerary:
Detailed itinerary follows!
Arrive Wednesday
Rent car
Drive to Russian River for beers to start the day
Reservations at @domaincarneros for bubbly
Order dinner for the Airbnb (& wine😂)
Thursday
Hire a driver
Visit Amizetta
Visit Aonair
Visit Signarello
Cook dinner at Airbnb
Friday
Drive ourselves to
Dinner Bear at Stanley Ranch
Night cap in downtown
Saturday
Free day! We decided to explore downtown Napa, have some tacos for lunch and enjoy the sunshine
We cooked steaks at home and finished up some wine we’d bought to enjoy!
Our Napa Itinerary:
Wednesday (Day 1):
Our group of 8 all came from Cleveland. We flew into San Fransisco and rented a 10 passenger van to comfortably get us all from the airport to Napa and around the area. (Pro-tip, Costco is the best for car rentals if you have a membership. Their prices are great, cancellation is free, and you can add a second driver for free too.)
We started out the day by driving out of the city and up to St. Helena for beers and lunch at Russian River. We had such a great time here, the service was great the food was good and reasonably priced and everyone loved their beer choices.
We had booked a reservation for 3pm at Domaine Carneros for a bubbly tasting. While we kind of wished we could’ve checked into the airbnb first (check in was at 4), it made for a really fun way to kick off the trip & our Napa experience.
By the time we arrived to the airbnb and got settled we decided to send some people out to grab some wine to drink for dinner. Originally thinking we’d cook dinner, we ended up doordashing Gotts because we were hungry and lazy!
Thursday (Day 2):
We elected to hire a driver for one day of our trip. Our driver Scott was incredible as he’d grown up in the area and had SO much knowledge about wineries, wine making, and the region as a whole. We had pre-planned the day (with some of his input) but looking back I’d love to have him plan a whole day for us next time as he had a lot of connections to smaller wineries and unique experiences. You can see more about Scott and his options, here. He’ll even plan your day off from drinking wine!
Scott even took us to grab our lunch before we headed to our first stop, his recommendation of Oakville Grocery.
This day we started at Amizetta, which was number 1 on our list as members of the group were already wine club members and had visited in the year prior. It was a DRIVE up the side of the mountain to get there but was WELL worth the trip. We truly felt like we were in the mediterranean and not California!
Our next stop was Aonair which was right down the mountain from Amizetta. It was a great place to stop and have the picnic lunch we packed and we got to enjoy a few wines while we were there. They had an expansive bourbon selection which is likely the only reason we’d stop in again as they do not currently produce their own estate wines.
Our last stop of the day was Signarello, which was destroyed by wildfires in 2017. It is JUST now reopening - in fact we weren’t sure we’d actually be able to tour until the week of our trip. While it was a bit clear we were in the first group of their tours since reopening, we had an excellent experience here. Highlights included seeing the bond villain like lair of a cellar, getting to smell the chardonnay room which featured a wall of exposed cave side stone, and a cheese pairing for our wine tasting.
When we returned we we treated to dinner cooked by one of our group members and it was delicious (summer veggie pasta!) We enjoyed wine that we’d purchased during our trip that day and it was great to get to spend some time together.
Friday (Day 3):
We figured someone might’ve had a few too many glasses the night before and would be willing to drive us around this day, so we did not hire a driver. Members of our group had a friend who runs the show at Sherwin Family, so that was our first stop. On our way from Napa up to Sherwin we stopped at Sunshine Food Markets to grab food and we ended up with a huge spread.
We had a great time at Sherwin, and elected to stay and have a few bottles as a group instead of trying to squeeze in a third stop. This was another family owned winery with a great story and a beautiful landscape. They too suffered a loss in a wildfire around 2021 and had recently reopened the tasting room.
Our second stop of the day was Darioush, we booked a tasting (one of the only ones we booked a tasting vs. connecting with the winery directly) for 2pm which included a food tasting. We struggled to find someone with availability for 8 guests Friday afternoon, so I do have to recommend 8 being your max in your party if you all plan to go places together. Darioush was definitely very ‘corporate” but I was able to enjoy their chardonnay and sav blanc instead of another red wine tasting becasue I was red wined out.
Once we returned we hung out at the house and refreshed to head to dinner at Bear at Stanley Ranch. A group member had met someone who worked at Auberge and suggested we make a reservation and let them know! As I am very familiar with myself, they unfortunately left no note or provided anything additional for the experience. Overall we were all pretty disappointed in the wine list, with bottles we had bought that day for $60 going for $200+ on the menu. Everyone truly enjoyed the food but recognized since we were on a wine trip we would’ve preferred just drinking the wines we’d bought at home and/or should’ve brought a bottle with us.
After dinner we stopped for a night cap, hoping to find some good live music in downtown Napa. While we had utlized an uber to get to Stanley Ranch and downtown, we were able to walk home which was very nice.
Saturday (Day 4):
Free day! We decided to explore downtown Napa, have some tacos for lunch and enjoy the sunshine. I was excited to find C Casa at Oxbow and enjoyed their gluten free menu + my newly developed obsession with Tajin on the rim of my margarita. We also had a few drinks at Fieldwork Brewing Company. They had a nice patio to hangout on and a wide variety of beer (and some wines)!
A few members of our group did a few more wine tastings around the area. We all met back at the house in the afternoon to cook steaks and finish some of the food and wine we’d bought to enjoy.
Additional Recommendations we didn’t get to this time!
Food:
Station (St. Helena) - to bring a picnic lunch to one of the wineries
Charlie's Napa Valley (St. Helena) - for lunch or dinner (Gluten Free options*)
Bouchon Bistro (Yountville) - French cuisine
La Calenda (Yountville) - Mexican
Ad Hoc (Yountville) - Gluten Free options*
Le Paris Artisan & Gourmet Cafe (Downtown Napa) - Coffee & pastries
Angele Restaurant & Bar (Downtown Napa) - Gluten Free options*
La Cheve Bakery and Brews (Downtown Napa) - Mexican
FARM Restaurant + Bar (Napa) - Italian
Wineries:
Frank Family Vineyards - Calistoga
Smith-Madrone Vineyards - St. Helena
Frog's Leap Winery - Rutherford
Groth Vineyards & Winery - Napa
Stags' Leap Winery - Napa
Hudson Ranch - Napa
Round Pond Estate Winery - do the olive oil tasting to get a break from wine, it’s awesome!
Mayacamas Vineyards & Winery - Napa
Whetstone Wine Cellars - Napa
B.R. Cohn Winery and Olive Oil Company - Glen Ellen
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